Video continues to dominate content marketing, and we don't see this trend fading any time soon. According to Forbes, more than 500 million hours of video are consumed online every day. Video has quickly become consumers' favorite way of absorbing content, so your organization must be creating a video to reach your target audience with your company's message successfully. However, we understand that not every small and medium-sized business can hire an agency to produce, shoot, and edit professional videos for every commercial, social media post, and visual communication with their audience. To help those organizations that can't outsource this task, we share a few video editing tips that will enhance content shot in-house to better appeal to your target market.  

1) Determine your needs for the video.
Before even picking up your camera (or Smartphone) to shoot the video, ask yourself why you are creating a video and where you want to share it. Determining your needs provides one clear goal for the video and an approximate length that your video needs to be. Defining the perimeters beforehand will streamline your editing immensely.  

2) Choose your software wisely.
If it's not intuitive to you, try something else! With so many editing tools out there, don't spend valuable time becoming frustrated trying to learn the latest and greatest editing software. With so many phone apps or standard editing options that come with your device (such as iMovie if you have a Mac), there is no reason to stress yourself out with sophisticated options when simple ones can do the trick. Once you master the simple ones, invest time into professional editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro to take your videos to the next level. Starting small is better than delaying creating video content because of a steep learning curve with sophisticated software.  

3) Don't forget about B-roll.
We get a bit technical with this tip, but stay with us! We highly suggest incorporating b-roll in your videos. In short, b-roll is secondary footage—for example, scenic shots, alternate vantage points, product shots, or even stock video. The addition of b-roll footage can help set the tone, break up the monotony, and give you more creative freedom when compiling your video. For example, when creating a video, you may realize that the sound is excellent, but the video of an interview isn't quite what you had in mind. This is a perfect opportunity to incorporate b-roll with the audio from your primary video. When you integrate secondary video, it gives your content another dimension and gives you flexibility when editing, helping you create an exceptional final product. 

Are you in charge of editing video content? What tips would you give someone when creating and editing videos for the first time?